How I Started Collecting Examples Of African American Foot Stomping Cheers

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision -Nov. 11, 2022

This pancocojams post provides some background about my experiences collecting examples of (mostly) African American foot stomping cheers. 

Although the title of this post is "How I started collecting examples of African American Foot Stomping Cheers", the post also includes examples of cheers that my daughter Tazi Hughes  (then TMP) shared with me and collected without me being present.  

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HOW I STARTED COLLECTING EXAMPLES OF (MOSTLY) AFRICAN AMERICAN FOOT STOMPING CHEERS
by Azizi Powell, September 8, 2016

Cassette Taping My Daughter's Cheers- mid 1980s [revised September 2016]
I first became aware of what I now called foot stomping cheers around 1985 when I observed my then twelve year old daughter and her girlfriends of similar ages chanting cheers while doing choreographed routines. I knew that my sisters, my girlfriends, and I hadn't performed cheers like that when we were children and pre-teens. And since I hadn't seen or heard those types of cheers being performed before, I wondered if this was a new form of children's recreational activity. Since I considered (and still consider) myself as an amateur community folklorist, I began recording and writing down the words to those cheers.

In those days I used the term "sidewalk cheers" to refer to the subset of children's cheerleader cheers that I now call "foot stomping cheers". Most of the "sidewalk cheers" that I collected in the mid 1980s were from my daughter Tazi [pronunciation: TAH-zee] Powell (now Hughes).

Around 1992 I asked Tazi to show me how she and her girlfriends "did" foot stomping cheers. As she demonstrated the foot stomping and alternate hand claps (or body pats), I audio recorded those performances on a cassette tape. Although I recall transcribing some portions of that tape, I misplaced those transcriptions. In 1996 I found that cassette tape, and another cheer cassette tape [read below] and I transcribed both of those tapes.

One of the cheers that Tazi performed for me from her childhood in the mid 1980s was:

INTRODUCE YOURSELF
Group except soloist: Hey, Shaquala!
Soloist #1: Yo! *
Group: Innn-TRO-duce yourself.
Soloist #1: No way.
Group: Innn-TRO-duce yourself.
Soloist #1: Okay.
My name’s Shaquala.
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #1: They call me Quala.
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #1: My sign is Aries
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #1: I like to dance
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #1: I wanna be a dancer for the rest of my life.

Repeat the entire cheer from the beginning with the next soloist. Each soloist substitutes her identifying information for the same categories (name, nickname, astrological sign, what she likes to do). The cheer continues from the beginning until every member of the group has had one turn as soloist.

-T.M.P.(African American female); Pittsburgh, PA mid 1980s; transcribed from an audio (cassette) tape by Azizi Powell, 1996

*The vernacular word "Yo" was later changed to "Hey" when that word was retired.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html Foot Stomping Cheers Alphabetical List (Numbers - C) for the first post in this five part series. All the other links to those posts are found on that page.

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Rankin Housing Project - 1985
During the 1980s, I often had "African storytelling" gigs in mostly African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in some surrounding Pittsburgh communities. One such occasion was in 1985 in a no longer existing public housing project in Rankin, Pittsburgh. When I arrived at that special programming event, there were only about five pre-teen girls present. The woman in charge sent one pre-teen out to gather up the rest of the group that usually attended her programming sessions. While we waited for the other children to arrive, I talked with the girls and showed them the examples of traditional African musical instruments which were part of my program. And because I was always looking for opportunities to collect examples of rhymes and cheers, I mentioned to those girls that my daughter had recently taught me what I then referred to as "sidewalk cheers". I told them the name of one of those cheers and asked if they knew it. Not only did those girls know that cheer- which was aptly named "Cheerleader", but they volunteered to show me how they did it. I was delighted to find out that the beat of their version of "Cheerleader" was the same as the two versions that my daughter had shown me. The foot stomping alternating with (individual) hand claps performance styles that the Rankin pre-teens did was also the same as the cheer that my daughter had demonstrated for me. But the words of the "Pittsburgh" versions* and the "Rankin" version were different. And each of those versions were different from the Mother Hippletoe version of "Cheerleader".

Here are those examples:

CHEERING IS MY GAME
Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (Twice)
CALL: Barbara. Barbara is my name.
RESPONSE: Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (similarly)
Cheering is my game.
Freddy. Freddy was my man.
But Ken is my main man.
Dn Dn Dn Dn Dn (Twice)
Cheer continues until each girl announces her name and her boyfriend’s name.
-"Old Mother Hippletoe, Rural and Urban Children's Songs"; http://www.newworldrecords.org/linernotes/80291.pdf; Barbara Borum and other Washington, D.C., schoolgirls, vocals.
Recorded 1976 in Washington, D.C., by Kate Rinzler, included in 1978 vinyl record.
-snip-
I happened upon a copy of the On Mother Hippletoe vinyl record set at a library used book sale sometime in the late 1990s. I bought that record for its record notes even though I didn't have a record player at that time. Band 3 "Cheerleading" of that record features four* examples of what the author of the record notes calls "cheers". Two of these examples* (Cheering Is My Game and Hollywood Keeps Swingin/Dynomite) have the textual structure that I consider a signature characteristic of "foot stomping cheers". I've collected multiple examples of both of those cheers among African American in various parts of the United States.

*Note that "Hollywood Keeps Swingin"/Dynomite" is actually two cheers combined together.

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CHEERLEADER (Version #1)
All: Cheerleader.
Roll Call.
Soloist #1: Yolanda,
They call me Lannie.
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #2: Renee,
They call me NayNay.
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #3: Ebony,
They call me Ebony.
Group: Hey! Hey!
Soloist #4: Melissa,
They call me Missy.
Group: Hey! Hey!

The cheer continues this way until everyone says their name and nickname. If the girl [or boy] doesn't have a nickname, the first name is repeated.
-T.M.P.(African American female; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, mid 1980s)

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CHEERLEADER (Version #4)
All: Cheer.
Leader.
Roll.
Call.
Are you ready?
Soloist #1: Shayla.
They call me Rosa.
Soloist #2: Shana.
They call me Poo.
Soloist #3: Shana.
They call me Shay.
Soloist #4: Jamie.
They call me Jay Jay.
Soloist #5: Jackie.
They call me HaJack (HighJack?).
All: Cheer.
Leader.
Zodiac signs.
Soloist #1: Aquarius.
That’s a dog.
Soloist #2: Cancer.
That’s a crab.
Soloist #3: Leo.
That’s a lion.
Soloist #4:Scorpio.
That’s a spider.*
Soloist #5: Scorpio.
That’s a spider.
All: Cheer.
Leader.
Phone.
Numbers.
Are you ready?
Soloist #1: 348-5110.**
Group: Always busy.
Soloist #2: 348-4554.
Group: Always busy.
Soloist #3: 348-3322
Group: Always busy.
Soloist #4: 348-5679
Group: Always busy.
Soloist #5: 348-4285
Group: Always busy.
- Shayla, Shana, Shana, Jamie, and Jackie (African American females about 10 years-12 years old, Talbot Towers Housing after-school program, Rankin, Pennsylvania); collected by Azizi Powell, 1985

*Notice that the symbol for Scorpio is wrong. Actually, Scorpio's symbol is a scorpion and not a spider.

** I changed the phone numbers the girls chanted to protect their privacy. Note that these phone numbers are without the area code that was later installed in Pittsburgh (in the 1990s?).

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Lillian Taylor Camp: 1989-1992 [edited Nov. 11, 2022]
In the summers of 1989 - 1992 when she was still in college, my daughter Tazi served as a Kingsley Association counselor for its Lillian Taylor Camp summer sessions. Lillian Taylor Camp was a camp for children ages 5-12 years of age. The  camp grounds were outside of Pittsburgh in Valencia, Pennsylvania. Most of the boys and girls who attended Kingsley Association sponsored sessions of Lillian Taylor camp were from the East End neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, including the mostly Black working class neighborhoods of East Liberty and Garfield. My daughter and I have lived in the neighborhood of East Liberty since 1978. 

Kingsley Association is still located in the neighborhood of East Liberty. During the time that I directly collected foot stomping cheers My daughter taught at Fort Pitt Elementary School, and I was a substitute teacher there for a short time.  Fort Pitt Elementary School closed in 2013. 

In 1992 part of Tazi's responsibilities was to serve as the camp's "cheer coach". At the end of each four week segment of that camp, each group had to participate in a camp show for the entire camp, their parents, and other guests. Most of the girl groups chose to perform an example of a foot stomping cheer. In her role as cheer coach, Tazi either taught those groups foot stomping cheers from the mid 1980s or helped them decide on a cheer to perform that a member or some members of their group already knew. She would then help the members of each group learn the words to their cheer and also supervise them while they practiced the cheer's foot stomping routine (as all members of the group had to perform together, and not just those who were "good at keeping on beat").

In her role as cheer coach, Tazi heard some of the same exact cheers that she and her girlfriends did in the mid 1980s. She also learned different versions of those old cheers. And she learned cheers that were completely new to her. Knowing about my interest in what I then called "sidewalk cheers", Tazi received permission to audio tape some examples of those cheers. She then played that cassette tape for me, and demonstrated those cheers' foot stomping/hand clapping routines. I attended one camp show and saw the campers perform some of those cheers. Although I believe that I recorded that tape in 1992, I didn't transcribe those cheers from that tape until 1996.

Having campers from various Pittsburgh neighborhoods was one way that cheers were spread from one Pittsburgh community to another. In addition, campers learned examples of cheers that came from other cities.

In 1992 one of the girls who attended Lillian Taylor Camp was from Washington, D.C., and was visiting her Pittsburgh cousin. That's how the cheer "Chocolate City" found its way into my cheer collection:

CHOCOLATE CITY*
All: Chock-let City.
Chock chock-let City.
Chock-let City.
Chock Chock-let City.
Soloist #1: My name is Linda
And I'm walkin.
Group: She's walkin.
Soloist #1: I'm talkin.
Group: She's talkin.
Soloist #1: I'M TALKIN TO [girls stop using first step beat]
All the boys in Chock-let City [begin new faster tempo step beat]
Get down to the nitty gritty.
Long time no see.
Sexy as I wanna be.
Some hittin me high.
Some hittin me low.
Some hittin me on my-
Don't ask what.
Group: What?
Soloist #1: My b-u-tt butt
That's what.

Repeat from the beginning with the next soloist who says her name or nickname. Continue this pattern until every girl in the group has had one chance as the soloist with this cheer.
-T.M.P, tape recording of African American girl campers, 1992.(Lillian Taylor Camp)
-snip-
* "Chocolate City" is the nickname for "Washington, D.C."
-snip-
Tazi told me that some campers wanted to say "Pittsburgh City" instead of "Chocolate City". But they were out voted.

Note that I collected the exact same words for "Chocolate City" in 1999 from Chatauqua (African American female, 10 year old) & Ralene (African American female, 12 years old , both from the Garfield section of Pittsburgh, PA, (at Fort Pitt School); Fort Pitt School was in the Garfield section of Pittsburgh. Garfield is very near the East Liberty neighborhood were my family lived (and where I still live). Furthermore, the majority of Lillian Taylor campers were from East Liberty as that was (and still is) where Kingsley Association, the organization that sponsored that camp, was/is based.

My daughter Tazi was a teacher at Fort Pitt school in 1999 when I collected this cheer. I wasn't a substitute teacher at that school until 2007 and we didn't begin Fort Pitt's Alafia Children's Ensemble program (read below) until 2003. In any event, Tazi indicated that she didn't teach anyone at Fort Pitt School that "Chocolate City" cheer and she was surprised to learn that any students in that school knew that cheer. As I have never read or heard that cheer anywhere else, I think it's very likely that those two girls learned "Chocolate City" from someone who attended that particular camp session, or from someone who learned that cheer from an attendee of that camp session.

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Written Hand Clap Rhyme Survey: Family Health Council - 1999
While I was working in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a program manager at the social service agency Family Health Council, I received permission to survey other employees about what hand clap rhymes and other recreational material they remembered from their childhood.

Copies of this survey were placed in employees physical [work] mail boxes. Participation was voluntary. While I did ask for demographic information (such as gender, name of the city the employee lived in as a child, and decade that the employee was a child), participants didn't need to sign their names. The survey consisted of names of rhymes and other recreational material (such as game songs and what I was then calling "sidewalk cheers), but there were no classifications given for those examples. Participants were to check off the names of examples that they were familiar with. A space was also provided for them to write down the words of their favorite recreational example, and also write down the names of (and-if they chose to) the words to a cheer in that list or apart from that list. I also asked those employees who were willing to participate in this survey if they thought that recreational chants had remained the same as they were when they were children, and if not, what they thought had changed.

Here's one rhyme example that I received from that survey:

J. J.COOL AID (Version #2)
Soloist #1: J.J. Cool Aid
Group: J.J. Cool Aid
Soloist #1: Teresa Londa
Group: Teresa Londa
Soloist #1: Back, back Tuanda
Whose my lover boy?
I said mmm my sweetie cakes
I’m callin on
I’m callin on
I’m callin on
Shakera
- White American female living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who indicated that she grew up in predominately Black neighborhood of Washington, DC; performed this in the 1980s; Collected by Azizi Powell, 1999 (Game song/Cheer survey of co-workers, Family Health Council, Pittsburgh, PA.)
-snip-
I was excited to read this example as I had collected a very similar example called "Jay Jay Kukalay" from my daughter in the mid 1980s. And I had collected the same exact "Jay Jay Kukalay" cheer in 1998 in the Garfield neighborhood which is very close to the East Liberty neighborhood where I first collected this cheer.

"Jay Jay Kukalay" and "J. J. Cool Aid" are undoubtedly inspired by the Ghanaian folk song "Che Che Kule".
"Che Che Kule" was one of the few African songs that was taught in Pittsburgh Public school's music classes. I wonder if that was the same in Washington, D.C.

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Cocojams.com: December 2000- October 2014
Thanks to several grants from the Pennsylvania Council On The Arts and Pennsylvania Humanities Council, and the Pittsburgh Multicultural Initiative, in December 2000 I launched a cultural website that I called "cocojams.com" ("coco" = "chocolate" = Black people + "jams" = songs). Cocojams.com was consistently online from the date of its launch until October 2014 when I voluntarily deactivated it. Except for those initial grants, my web designer and web master, Lucas Musewe and I worked on Cocojams.com as volunteers.

Along with multiple other pages on cultural subjects, many of Cocojams.com's rhymes, game songs, and cheers pages showcased more than one version of the same rhyme, game song, or cheer. A lot of the examples of children's rhymes and cheers that were posted on Cocojams.com came from site visitors who filled out an easy to use comment box which didn't need any email address. It appears that a number of those site visitors were children and teens. I urged all those who submitted rhyme, game song, and cheer examples to remember to add their first name (only), demographic information, performance directions, and/or other comments. I also frequently added editorial comments, for instances explaining the meaning of vernacular terms, or pointing out the R&B or other record inspiration from some of those examples. And it should be noted, that many of the examples that were featured on those website pages weren't (and still probably aren't) included in print books about children's recreational rhymes, game songs, and cheers.

Sometime around 2002 I substituted the term "foot stomping cheer" for the term "sidewalk cheers".

Here are two examples of foot stomping cheers that were sent in by Cocojams visitors:

MY NAME IS __ (Example #4)
I remembered this cheer from when I was little. (Say this with attitude) You say:

"My name is _________ and I'm a star you mess with me I'll take you far." Others say: "Woo, she thinks she's bad." You say: "Correction baby, I know I'm bad." Others say: "Woo, she thinks she's bad." You say: "Child, please!" (As you say the last line, you put your hand up as if motioning "stop") You repeat this cheer until everyone on the squad has had a turn.
-kelly, 9/27/2006, cocojams.com

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MY NAME IS ___ (Version #5)
SOLO:My name is Naomi on the Phone with my Daisy Dukes on
if you see me on the street boy you better speak to me.
GROUP:Oo she think she bad
SOLO: At least i use a wash rag
GROUP: Oo she think she cool
SOLO: Soap and water will do
GROUP:Oo she think she fine
SOLO: Fine Fine #9 take yo man anytime, he took me out he brought me back he besta have my cadillac. he brought you 1 he brought me 2, married me and divorced you.
he taught me Karate and taught me Kung Fu. mess wit me
and i'll do it on you
GROUP:Bang Bang choo choo train
wind her up she'll do her thang
SOLO: I can't
GROUP:Why not
SOLO: I said I can't
GROUP:WHY NOT?
SOLO: I said my back is aching and my bra's too tight. my
booty's shakin from the left to the right
GROUP:Left Right Left Right yo mama is a ugly sight
-Naomi; 1/17/2007, cocojams.com

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Alafia Children's Ensemble (Braddock, Pennsylvania): 2002 - 2004
From around 2002 until around the end of 2004, I received Pittsburgh multicultural Initiative grants to organize and co-led (with my daughter Tazi Powell) a children's group that I named "Alafia Children's Ensemble". This first "chapter" of Alafia Children's Ensemble was located in Braddock, Pennsylvania, Braddock is about forty minutes from my home in Pittsburgh. Braddock's Alafia sessions were held for one and a half hour, one evening a week and consisted of two groups that shared a beginning assembly and an ending assembly. One group learned and performed traditional and adapted African American game songs. Members of this group were encouraged to share examples of rhymes and cheers that they knew with the possibility that those examples would become part of the group's performance repertoire. Members of Braddock's Alafia game song & cheers component were mostly African American and mostly girls ages 5-12 years. The other half of Braddock's Alafia group consisted of a beginners' djembe (African drum) class. Although it wasn't designed that way, every member of that component were African American boys between the ages of 8-12 years.

Here's an example of a cheer that I collected from my daughter and saw the Braddock Alafia group do the exact same cheer- but with different dance moves:

A Bulldog* (Version #1)
Group: Ah bull dog.
Ah bull dog.
Ah bull dog.
Ah bull dog.
Soloist #1: My name is Kayla.
Group: Ah bulldog.
Soloist #1: And I’m gonna show you how to work that bulldog.
Group: Ah bulldog.
Soloist #1: First you roll it.
Control it.
Then you bounce it.
Announce it.
Then you pop it.
Don’t stop it.
Then you creep it.
Don’t sleep it. (or “Don’t weep it”.)
Then you stop,
Think,
A ring a ding ding.

Repeat the exact same cheer with the next soloist. Continue with this pattern until every member of the group has had one turn as soloist ]
- Jasmine, Indonesia, Brittany, Kayla, Felicia, & Tiara (African American females ages 9-12 years), Alafia Children’s Ensemble, Braddock, Pennsylvania, Collected by Azizi Powell 10/2000

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Alafia Children's Ensemble (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Fort Pitt School, 2003-2006
From 2003 to 2006 I received Pittsburgh Multicultural Initiative grants to fund an Alafia Children's Ensemble program in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Fort Pitt School. Fort Pitt's Alafia was an after school group that was held for one hour a week. Unlike Braddock's Alafia group, Fort Pitts' group only consisted of the game song/cheers component. Given the school's racial composition of 99% Black, all members of Fort Pitt's Alafia group were African American. Two other differences between the Braddock Alafia group and the Fort Pitt's group were that my daughter Tazi and I were the only staff, and no parents attended these sessions- largely because they were held immediately after school and not in the early evening.

But, as was the case with Braddock's Alafia, Fort Pitt's Alafia had a built-in component that encouraged girls to share with the group examples of rhymes and other recreational material that they knew.

Here's an example of a foot stomping cheer that I learned from Fort Pitt's Alafia Children's Ensemble:

GET DOWN (Version #2)
Hey (a name) say what, show me how to get down, no way, show me how to get down, ok, we stump our feet, we move to the beat we turn around, touch the ground and that's the way we do it. ok
-Khamya; (African American female, age 8; (Garfield neighborhood, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania); 3/21/2006

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Mudcat Folk Music Forum: 2004- November 2009
In 2004 I joined the online Mudcat folk music forum. By their role modeling, some members of that discussion forum instilled in me the importance of citing sources and the importance of citing as much demographic information as you can when you are collecting folkloric material. I shall always be grateful to those members of that folk music form for those lessons. And when YouTube began and MySpace was the thing, one member of that discussion forum, Lizzy, taught me how to use HTML code to make hyperlinks and also taught me how to reduce the code for YouTube videos. Thanks, Lizzy!

Some of children's rhymes, game songs, and cheer examples that were featured on Cocojams.com were initially posted on various Mudcat threads about that subject. I started a number of those discussion threads.

Here are two foot stomping cheer examples from Mudcat.com:

INTRODUCE YOURSELF (Versions #6)
"Hey girl, hey you, introduce yourself. Introduce yourself."
Then each individual girl says a rhyme about themselves, like,
"My name is Joan (group says "check") I'm from AC ("check") I come to say ("check") Don't mess with me ("Check it out")
-Joan C.(Anglo-American female ; chanted by Black, Latino, and White girls at Catholic High School in Atlantic City, New Jersey, late 1970s; electronic message to Azizi Powell; 2/11/2007,
-snip-
This is the earliest foot stomping cheer that I've ever collected.

Remarkably, Joan C and I both blogged on Mudcat's online folk music discussion forum, but I didn't "know" her. I had shared some foot stomping examples on several Mudcat discussion threads, and Joan sent me this example. Prior to her sending me that example, I had no idea that she was from my hometown of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Earlier examples of what I call "foot stomping cheers" are from that same time period- Mother Hippletoe record; collected in 1976 by Kate Rinzler from Washington D.C school girls). It should be noted, however, that Rinzler wrote that there is some evidence of Washington D.C. school girls doing "cheers" in 1973-1975. I'm not sure if those "cheers" included what I call foot stomping cheers.

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GIGALO (Version #3)
This gigalo cheer is longer

Gigalo Gig-Gigalo (say what)x2
Hey___ (group)
Yeah (reply)
Are you ready (group)
For what (reply)
to jig (group)
Jig what (reply)
Alo!!! (group)
Girl-
Well my bach ache my bra too tight, my hips shake from left to right
to the left (what!)-group & girl- right (what!)-group & girl- left right left right
I turn around I touch the ground, I get back up and I breack it down
My hands up high my feet down low and this the way I gigalo (and thats the way she gigalo!)-group-
- Guest, Raven; Gigalo & other children's rhymes &cheers; http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=100807, May 12, 2008
-snip-
"Gigalo" is also an apparently very widely known hand clap game.

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Other direct collection efforts: 2002-2009
From 2002 to 2005 I also received grants from Pittsburgh's Multicultural Foundation to provide one and one half hour sessions of game song & cheers programming in mostly African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in some surrounding Pittsburgh communities. Those programming sessions also provided opportunities to learn new game songs, rhymes, and cheers examples, and/or different versions of the examples that I already knew.

When I served as a substitute teacher (mostly at Fort Pitt School) and two days at Faison elementary school in the nearby Pittsburgh neighborhood, Homewood) I was alert for opportunities to collect recreational rhymes. For example, I asked children to demonstrate rhymes/cheers or asked them what rhymes/cheers they knew during recess, or during down time in the classroom or down time during after-school sessions.

Here's one example of a cheer that I collected in 2008 from a Fort Pitt student:

SHAKE WHAT I GOT IN MY SKIRT (Version #2)
My name is Raya and I'm here to say
I can shake what I got in my skirt.
I can turn around
And touch the ground
And I can shake what I got in my skirt.
-Raya & Sha'ona,(African American girls, ages 11 years old) Fort Pitt Accelerated Learning Academy; Pittsburgh, PA; collected by Azizi Powell, 6/12/2008

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From 2002 to 2005 I also received grants from Pittsburgh's Multicultural Foundation to provide one and one half hour sessions of game song & cheers programming in mostly African American neighborhoods in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in some surrounding Pittsburgh communities. Those programming sessions also provided opportunities to learn new game songs, rhymes, and cheers examples, and/or different versions of the examples that I already knew.

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Indirect collection: internet surfing for children's recreational material: mostly 2002 - to date
I haven't directly collected examples of children's rhymes, game songs, or cheers (including foot stomping cheers) since 2009. Most of the examples of those recreational materials that I've collected since that time has been as a result of internet surfing.

Here's an example of a foot stomping cheer that I collected online which is also very similar to a cheert hat my daughter remembers from the mid 1980s:

L. O.V.E (Version #3)
on da playground*-

L.O.V.E. L.O.V.E. L.O.V L.O.V. L.O.V.E
Well Terrie's my name
and Love is my game
I got da boys on my mind
Most of da time
Capricorn's My Sign
Say Wha?
Capricorn's My Sign
Say Wha?
Capricorn, Capricorn
Capricorn's My sign!
- Geechie Gurl; http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=118895016491 “When I be a gal in da Ya'd! Memba Dese..Just a few of em”’ August 26, 2009;

**
Here's another example of a foot stomping cheer that I found online:
ELEVATE YOUR MIND
elevate your mind
get yourself together
when i count to 3
do the "rock" with me...
I said a 1, 2, 3 do the "rock" with me...

repeat that last line 2 times then repeat the entire cheer until everyone puts a “dance” in…
-AKA2D '91 (no location given); retrieved on 12/29.2009; http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=4123&page=2 “remember when”

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In conclusion
I haven't directly collected examples of children's rhymes, game songs, or cheers (including foot stomping cheers) since 2009. Most of the examples of those recreational materials that I've collected since that time has been as a result of internet surfing - particularly on YouTube.

I'm certain that some old hand clap rhymes, some new versions of those old hand clap rhymes, and some "completely" new hand clap rhymes are parts of children's (mostly girls) self-initiated recreational play. But I'm far less sure whether old or new versions of circle singing games, line singing games, and movement rhymes are part of children's self-initiated recreational play.

I know that a few of these foot stomping cheers (such as some "Introduce Yourself" cheers and "Shabooya Roll Call") live on because of cheerleader movies such as Bring It. But, apart from those foot stomping cheers that have found their way in modified performance forms in children's mainstream cheerleader squads, I'm not sure how many of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s foot stomping cheers are remembered and/or still performed.

Also, I'm not sure if new foot stomping cheers (with the textual structure and performance style I've noted) are being composed.

Do you know if girls (and/or boys) are still creating and performing what I refer to as "foot stomping cheers"? If so, please share that information and examples in this post's comment section or in the comment section of one of the Pancocojams Foot Stomping Cheers Alphabetical Lists posts. Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2016/09/foot-stomping-cheers-alphabetical-list.html for the first post in that series. The links for the other posts in that series are given in each of those posts.

Thanks!

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